Our two year Blogiversary!

Hard to believe that two years ago today, I began this blog!  We've really come so far in the past two years.  From chosing our best option to actually building a home. 
After seven hundred and thirty days of pouring over countless decisions about our home, tonight the first floor of our home sits underneath a blanket of snow, and beneath that a blanket of insulation, that is protecting the concrete ceiling.
We've come so very far, to reach a slight snag in the timeline:

This is what it has looked like in our town for the past week and a half.  And while our builders are hardy and work in most any weather, snow and ice are not proper working conditions. 

The good news though is that the day before the big snow, the builders managed to pour the ceiling of the first floor.  They came on Friday morning to put a "blanket" over the house, which helps to keep the house dry and warmer, in order to help the concrete dry properly.  I am just happy for the house that it is all snuggled under a cuddly blanket. I'd love to leave a thermos of hot chocolate for the house to enjoy when it gets really cold. 

Of course, as it we are now two weeks out from Chirstmas, it looks like we won't see our builders again until January now.  I'm not upset.  As I was telling my friend Mandy today, I feel so guilty when the guys are working in cold weather.  I know its their job, but I don't want to be the reason our builders are out there freezing their butts off.  We'll get our house built, I don't mind.

As soon as we find the battery charger for our camera, I will post some new pictures.  In the past week, the house has looked really Christmassey all covered in snow.  Sadly, today, it is totally rainy.  But, the forecasters are predicting a white Christmas, so it looks like its time to get decorating!

What is very cool and very unplannable, is that on this two year Blogiversary, we met with the Notary Public this afternoon.  We signed the contract in which Joern's parents gifted us 100 sq. meters of their land.  We are now the owners of all of the land upon which our home sits!  Amazing!  Plus, this was the final step necessary before we were able to secure our mortgage.  So, pretty soon, we should be able to receive our money from the bank.  Scary, but also very necessary!

It is so much fun to look back on the journey that is long behind us.  It seems like another world ago when we were looking at existing homes and considering pre-fabs.  Somehow, through it all, we managed to find our best fit.  I cannot believe that so much has happened, and that we have two-thirds of the exterior now completed.  So much of our heart and souls have been poured into this home already.  It is a part of us.  It is also amazing to think that we will be living in our custom-build on our third blogiversary.  I can't wait to watch this upcoming year unfold!
Thank you to all the readers who have gone through this process with us.  Many of you have left fantastic comments which have helped us wade through all the decisions.  I look forward to one day welcoming many of you into our home!

Excavation Day 4

Today is September 1.  It seems hard to belive that a month ago, the building lot, and my in-law's front yard looked like this:

And less than one week ago, the building lot looked like this:

Today, the building lot looks like this:

Drumroll please....

(Channel Chevy Chase, Christmas Vacation (Schöne Bescherung) - the house lighting scene)

Trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Dum-Dum-Dum-Dum.

Rat-a-tat-tat-Rat-a-tat-tat

Bum-bum-bum-bum

Daaaaaaaaa


"JOY TO THE WORLD!"

At 7:20 am today, we broke ground! 

Dear family Roesner, you are formally invited to

Pay up! We received the letter today from the notary public. Now that we have completed all the necessary steps, we now have the permission to purchase our building lot. Wow, thanks!
10 days to pay, but we're going to do it much sooner, like this afternoon, or tomorrow.
The good news is of course, that we will officially own, a very small, but very ours, piece of property!
Hooray!
In other news, we stopped by the builder's office today. He wasn't there, but his secretary checked and he has marked in his calendar that we will be meeting with both Mr. Builder and Mr. B tomorrow afternoon :) Yay! I can't wait to hear what news they have for us!

Today's mailbox find

We got TWO official house-related letters. Both important and both signifying that we soon have to cough up a lot of money to buy our building lot.
The first letter came from the town. We were waiting for this letter, although it makes me annoyed. Before you purchase a piece of land here for building purposes, you need to clear it with the town that they do not have any earlier claims put a the land to build on it, you know, like putting up a pool or building a school on your land. It makes sense, but this late in the game, makes little sense for us. First of all, this should have been done in February, when we put through the application for the building permit. The building permit application listed exactly where the house was going to be built. Since our town is so big (HA!), this goes through the same person anyway. Second, our building lot is a part of a much larger piece of land that belonged to an old couple. They died, their property went up for sale, and two people bought the land, and broke it up into 8 building lots. HELLO, the town would have stopped the purchase two years ago had this been an issue. Oh well, we got the negative letter today. One of the first times in my life that a negative is a good thing.
The second letter we received was from another notary public. This, notary public, unlike the one we spent over an hour with, is responsible for making changes to the land title registry. Oy! So, not only did we receive a notification that there will be a change to the land title registry, but, came along with a lovely 118 Euro bill as well. Sheesh!
Now that these two letters are in our possession, we are now waiting for a letter from the first notary public, who will give us the green light, and set in motion the 10 days we have to pay for the very, not cheap land!
Exciting and nerve wracking all at once. If we don't come out of this experience with ulcers then I'll know that Joern and I are strong people!

We're under contract to purchase the land!

I haven't posted in about a month, yet obviously, a lot has happened. I will save the story of the container and all the furniture and purchases we made for the house, for anotheer post. Today, I want to focus on what happened yesterday- we signed the contract for our lot!
Before we left for the States, we had set a date of July 22nd to meet with the lot owners at a notary public to sign the sales contract. Since we had to stay in the States longer, to pack the container, we had to move the date of the meeting. We got in on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, my father-in-law called us to tell us that he spoke with the family we are purchasing from, and that they had rescheduled the meeting to yesterday (Thursday.)
Our meeting was yesterday at 5 pm in Esslingen am Neckar at a notary public. Since I've never purchased real estate in the US, I can't compare the process. But, I can explain what the process is like here to purchase a building lot.
First, Joern and I gathered with the family selling us the land, as well as Joern's father. When we were called, we all went to a room, where a government official collected our passports. He also checked our factual information listed in the contract, like the spelling of our names and our addresses. He then took our passports to make photocopies, and returned with the notary public.
In the States, I only remember going to a notary public to have them witness a signature. I think I had been to one twice, but can't place the reason for either visit. In Germany, a notary public holds a much larger role. This guy was a big guy in every sense, he was physically large, and took up the wohle room with his voice and personality. After introducing himself, the notary public explained to me that a translator was not provided for me, and that I needed to make sure that I understood the entire contract, and could not sign it until I understood every detail.
An hour later, the notary public had read the entire contract, and explained in detail each paragraph in it. There were a few tricky additions to the contract. We are purchasing with the land 1/6 of the private road that runs in front of our house, and only found out yesterday, that we are responsible for paying 1/6 of the final paving of said street. We also had to clarify with the notary public that a condition of our land purchase is that we would allow our next door neighbors to build directly on our property line, instead of 2.5 meters removed from our property line. We also agreed to build our house (but not our garage- which you are legally allowed to build on the property line,) 5 meters back from the property line. Oy, that took another 15 minutes of discussion.
If the meeting were shorter it would have been interesting. It was just long though. I did learn though that because Joern and I are purchasing the land as co-owners, the house will automatically be in both our names. I also learned that we can't purchase the lot just yet. Because Germany is so wonderful, the signed contract with the house placement needs to go back to the town of Neckartailfingen, just to make sure that the town really does not plan to put a school, road, or anything else public on our building lot. How foolish. The town approved the building in the first place, in Februrary, or March, but we just need to make sure. Sheesh! Once the town agrees that no town pool is being planned for our building lot, we will then be allowed to complete the purchase of the land. They truly assume here you have all the time in the world! But now that we have signed the contract, we are legally required to pay for the land within 10 days after receiving the okay from the town. The other positive though is that the sellers cannot sell the land now to anyone else. Hooray!
The big surprise came after the meeting was over, when the sellers invited us, Joern's father included, out to dinner. We went to a really nice restaurant in the town center. We had such a yummy dinner, and nice conversation. It was certainly an evening to remember!